Hi
I finally got my wedge set up and my reticle arrived so i tried to do a drift align in my back yard. This is difficult as i cant see the SCP and there are trees everywhere. Anyway after 5 hours i was absolutely nowhere and getting very very frustrated. Then i found this link
http://www.aussiepeople.com.au/ASIGN...alignment.aspx and followed the drift alignment procedure for RA (but with tracking on) and in 5 minutes had a star moving along the horizontal reticle with no up or down movent for at least 15 minutes. It was not properly aligned in DEC as there was still some slow horizontal movement in the reticle.
Anyway i was so excited and since it was nearly 3am i decided what the hey, lets take some photos even though the DEC is a bit off. I have a meade ed 80 piggybacked on a nexstar 11 gps and a eos 300d. Usually if i image through the ed 80 i get star trails in about 45 seconds. This time i got nearly 4 minutes with minimum trailing. I cant wait until the next clear night to do a full drift align and see what happens.
For any beginner out there like me struggling with drift align the above drift align article is fantastic and actually seems to make sense for me. It will still take me ages to hone my technique but at least i have made a start.
I have attached 3 images. All are 4 minute exposures at prime focus F6. The first is without a filter and shows how bad the light is in Glebe (3km from Sydney GPO). The second is the same star but taken with an Orion broadband filter and the last is the first image run through photoshop.
I have heaps of questions but am insanely happy that i finally managed even a RA align.
Man, where are those clear skies...